A Special Day With David Lykes Keenan - The Ache

Fortunately, my memory filters out the harsher details but it's hard for me to remember a time when the Ache wasn't more than a quiet moment away.

Standing at a crosswalk or sitting alone with a latte, a certain person passing on the sidewalk, a happy group engaging the barista in coffee talk, a beautiful couple holding hands under a table, can quickly recall the Ache past all my carefully designed distractions.

Born of loneliness, frustration, rejection and anger, the Ache is not lacking for fuel. It is unrelenting, a shapeless mass that molds itself to the emptiness in the heart and holds on tightly like the parasite it has become.